I am very pleased to welcome everyone once again to the European 10,000m Cup here in Pacé. This townwill stage this event for a second successive year,and also in 2024.
We are in the heart of the wonderfully scenic Bretagne region, and 12 months ago we witnessed impressive victories from Jimmy Gressier and Yasmin Can which delighted the crowd.
The fact that athletes of the calibre of Gressier and Can competed here in Pacé and added their names to the Cup’s very illustrious role of honour last year, gives one small indication of how important this event is to many of Europe’s leading distance runners.
This has been emphasised further in the last few months as – with the cross country and spring marathon ‘seasons’ having come to an end – a plethora of well-known names with strong international credentials have publicly committed to contesting this year’s Cup.
They will be bidding here for individual and team honours, and to test their fitness for other important races, such as at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest in just over two months’ time.
Consequently, as has been the case often in the past, I expect high-quality races and strong fields of highlymotivated runners looking to compete at their best and produce performances that will enhance the reputation of the Cup. In similar fashion to 2022, once again European Athletics would like to offer a big thank you to the French athletics federation – Fédération Française d'Athlétisme – the Local Organising Committee, the various regional and local public authorities who have generously supported this event, the commercial partners and, of course, all the officials and volunteers involved in the event.
I wish everyone a successful and enjoyable 26thedition of the European 10,000m Cup.
Dobromir KaramarinovEuropean Athletics President
